KUALA LUMPUR: The hunt for bargains has commenced following yesterday's sharp slump in equities prices that erased two weeks of gains on the benchmark FBM KLCI.
A bout of volatility hit the market hard on Monday as US President Joe Biden announced he was making way for a new Democratic presidential nominee for the upcoming elections.
"Local markets were dampened by renewed volatility yesterday with the key index languished largely in the red that was impacted by the renewed uncertainty in the US Presidential election.
"Following yesterday’s slump, we reckon mild recovery to emerge as investors takes the opportunity to bargain hunt beaten down stocks," said Apex Securities Research in a note.
"We expect the technology sector may mirror the recovery on Nasdaq overnight, while the Plantation sector may ride onto the six consecutive session of rally with CPO prices inches towards RM4,000/MT," it added.
At the start of Tuesday trading, the FBM KLCI rose 3.17 points to 1,625.23, recouping some of the 14-point loss recorded in the previous day.
Bank stocks came back strongly with Maybank rising six sen to RM10.12, CIMB adding five sen to RM7.17 and Hong Leong Bank gaining two sen to RM19.04.
YTL Power put on five sen to RM4.80 and YTL Corp climbed six sen to RM3.54.
Meanwhile, licensed pawnbroker Well Chip surged 53 sen to RM1.68 on its debut on the Main Market with chart-topping turnover of 14.57 million shares.
Other leading market actives included PHB up 0.5 sen to 10 sen and Velesto
down 0.5 sen to 22.5 sen.
Later tonight, investors will have their eyes peeled as bellwether US stocks such as Alphabet and Tesla will be reporting their results.
The key economic data in focus is the Malaysia inflation rate, set to be released tomorrow, as well as US new home sales.
